Door latch



0. D. HARBERT Nov. 7, 1950 DOOR LATCH Filed April 28, 1947 Ww' T Z l q I; m m M m a r r AW/ Z w g M \\w m H I m a 5 w Patented Nov. 7, 1950 UNITED STATES PATENT" OFFICE The invention relates to a door latch useful for either swinging or sliding doors.

An object of the invention is to provide a door latch which is simple in construction, forming a compact package for shipping or storing, and 5 requiring two different operations in order to unlock the latch.

The invention provides a gravity operated lock for aswinging bolt, the bolt, its keeper and the lock being made of different lengths of the same material such as strip metal. Those strips, in flat form, plus some bolts, bushings and washers are all that is required.

While the latch of this invention may be used for other purposes, it was particularly designed for a horse stable. It well known that a. horse is very intelligent and can operate many of the simpler types of latches. The latch of this invention is horse proof as the horse cannot simultaneously perform two operations required to operate the latch. These operations are ar ranged so that one of them can be performed by the thumb, the other by the forefinger of the same hand of the operator.

For further details of the invention, reference may be made to the drawings wherein Figs. 1, 2 and 3 illustrate the invention as applied to a swinging door while Fig. 4 shows the invention as applied to a sliding door.

Fig. l is a front view in elevation showing the latch in locked position.

Fig. 2 is a front view in elevation of the latch of Fig. 1 showing the latch in unlocked position.

Fig. 3 is a sectional view on line 33 of Fig. 1, looking in the direction of the arrows.

Fig. 4 is a front view in elevation of a modification showing the latch in locked position for a sliding door.

Referring to the drawings, the swinging door I has a door jamb 2. Pivotally mounted on the door I by a bolt 3 is a swinging dead bolt 4 (that is, it is not spring operated), having a handle 5. The bolt 3 is horizontal and the swinging bolt 4 swings in a vertical plane so that when the door I is closed, its outer end 8 extends behind an upright keeper l in the form of a bracket. The keeper 1 is a flat strip supported by bolts or hangers 8 and S, spaced from the front of the jamb 2. This spacing is obtained by a bushing I on bolt 8 between the rear of strip 1 and a washer II at the front of the lamb 2. The bolt 9 has a similar bushing l2 between the keeper I and a Washer l3. The lower bushing l2 serves as a stop for the outer end 6 of the swinging bolt 4, 'The upper bush 3 Claims. (Cl. 2925238) ing, Iii serves as a pivotal support for a gravity lock i4. When the outer end 8 of the swinging bolt 4 i behind the keeper '8 and resting on the bushing 12, the lower end l5 of the lock it. overlies the end 6 to keep the door locked and prevent unlocking swinging movement of the bolt or latch member 4.

The upper end it of the lock M has a knob or finger piece l'i which is engageable by the thumb of the operator to swing the lock l4 away from the outer end 5 of the latch. member whereby the forefinger of the same hand can engage the handle 5 to lift the latch member t and unlock the doof.

When it is desired to latch the door, on dropping the latch member 4' with the door closed, it will strike the lock l4 and swing it away somewhat to the position shown in Fig. 2, and when the latch member l reaches a horizontal position, resting on the bushing E2, the lock l4 swings back to lock position in which it hangs behind and in line with the keeper 1 as shown in Fig. 1.

The upper left hand corner 58 of the keeper '5 serves as a stop for the knob H, to limit the unlocking swinging movement of the lock M as shown in Fig. 2. I

The latch member 4, keeper '5, and gravity lock l may all have the same cross section and comprise different lengths of the same flat strip of material such as metal. These strips and their working parts can be packed in a compact package.

In the modification shown in Fig. 4, the sliding door 29 is held in locked position by providing the bottom of swinging bolt 2! with a notch 22 which engages the lower bushing 23. Sliding movement of door 29 is prevented while the lower end 2d of the gravity lock 25 overlies the outer end 26 of the bolt 2E. The door 26 is unlatched as before, by pushing the lock handle 27 to the left with the thumb, and by lifting on the bolt handle 28 with the forefinger of the same hand. The bolt 25 and the lock 25 drop by gravity to the locked position shown in Fig. 4.

As shown in Figs. 1 to 3, the bearing hole 35 in the lock it is larger than its bushing so as to permit the desired swinging movement of the lock 44, while permitting the knob ii to rest and slide on the upper end of the keeper 1. A similar enlarged bearing hole CM is provided for the lock 25 in Fig. 4.

The latch device shown in Figs. 1 to 3 is re-- versible as the keeper l and its associated parts can be mounted on the support i which in this case would be a door jamb, While the swinging bolt 4 can be mounted on the right hand side of keeper 1 on support 2 which in this case would be a door.

The latch device in Fig. 4 is likewise reversible, the notch 32 then being on the bottom of bolt 2| for engagement with bushing 23.

When the latch device is used to lock an outopening door from the inside, or an in-opening door from the outside, the bolt would be mounted on the jamb and the keeper and gravity lock would be mounted on the door. Otherwise the pressure of the door towards open position would pull outwardly on the bolt, whereas the main strength of the bolt is its ability to resist pressure toward its mount. Thus, using this latch to lock an overhead garage door from the inside, one would mount the keeper and lock on the inside of the door and mount the bolt on the jamb.

Any attempt to open this latch device fromthe outside (when mounted on the inside) by inserting a knife or any thin object between the door and jamb would meet with failure, as the gravity lock would foil such attempt.

Various modifications can be made in the invention without departing from the spirit of the following claims. For example, there are doors on which attachment of such a lock with bolts might be difficult or impossible, in which case, the entire latch device can be installed by using screws in the places where bolts like 3, 8, 9 are indicated.

I claim:

1. A latch comprising a swinging latch member, a horizontal pivot therefor, a keeper therefor comprising a flat upright strip, a bolt for the upper end and a bolt for the lower end of said strip, a bushing on each of said bolts for supporting said strip spaced in front of a support, said lower bushings serving as a stop for said latch member,a gravity lock for said latch member, said upper bushing supporting said lock for pivotal movement behind said strip, and a knob at the upper end of said lock and projecting forwardly over the upper end of said strip, said strip having an upper end serving as a stop for said knob to limit pivotal movement of said lock.

2. A latch according to claim 1 wherein said keeper and said lock are essentially flat strips of material.

3. A latch according to claim 1 comprising a cooperating finger piece on said latch member, said finger piece and said knob being in position for engagement by difierent fingers of the same hand of the operator.

OTIS D. HARBERT.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS 

